Eight years ago today, Arsenal beat the mighty Barcelona 2-1 in the Champions League, but those great European days are becoming a distant memory and we have now been relegated to playing in the Europa League. We should really be making mincemeat of most of the clubs in the second tier competition, but right now Arsenal have certainly made things hard for themselves after losing 1-0 to BATE in Belarus last week.
I would make the ridiculous but obvious statement that Emery should be picking his very best XI to make sure of victory, but I have the feeling that he thought he had done that last week (and against Huddersfield) and we all know how that turned out. Of course everyone is calling for the return of Mesut Ozil, but after seeing him on holiday with his fiancee Amine Gulse in Turkey at the weekend, I have a feeling that relations between him and the boss are far from being sorted just yet.
We are also in the dark regarding Aaron Ramsey, but I really think he should play, especially as Lacazette is suspended, and the Welshman would love to win one more trophy with Arsenal before going to honour-laden Juventus in the summer.
The good news is that Sokratis is back in training and I want him to line-up alongside Koscielny in place of Mustafi, but it is more likely that we will have a back three with the German incuded as well. Mavropanos is also said to be in contention, but Emery doesn’t seem to trust him yet..
So who do you think that Emery go with tomorrow, considering how important it is for us to score goals?
My choice is…
Cech
Maitland-Niles Mustafi Koscielny Sokratis Kolasinac
Guendouzi Xhaka Torreira
Ramsey Mhkitaryan
Aubameyang
What do you think?
Pat